Lulu's Thai Noodle Shop Review

Today was an amazing day! We had pastries and coffee at our favorite bakery, LeMonde, in North Kansas City, a quick look around World Market in Westport, and lunch at Lulu's Thai Noodle Shop off of Central Street. I love spending the day in the city!

 I have been eyeing Lulu's for a while now because I literally drive by it every week!
I'm going to change things up a bit and give my rating for Lulu's first. I give Lulu's a restaurant rating of 6. I would so recommend to my friends. In fact, I was thinking about how this might be a new place to go with my girls! There are options for everyone; Even gluten free options. I have to say this because a few of my friends are vegetarian/gluten free so I am trained to look for tasty veggie gluten free options! I loved the atmosphere at Lulu's. The relaxed feel made it a perfect place to really enjoy your meal and your company. (It's always easy to enjoy my company J )  There were many moments where my sis and I did a little more laughing than eating! The decor was perfect for this little noodle shop fun, artsy, and unique. Got to love the wok table lights! (Yes, LOVED those!) We had really great service, very friendly and understanding of the newbies trying Thai for the first time! Enough said about the restaurant, now onto the taste rating!

 I ordered the Drunken Noodles: rice noodles with Thai basil, peanuts, bean sprouts, lemongrass, red and green bell peppers, egg, and a lime. We were told this was one of their most popular dishes. My first impression of the Drunken Noodles was "What is that awful smell!?!?" (Smelly feet!!) No joke, I wasn't expecting it, but I didn't let the smell scare me away! (I was so glad that was yours and not mine LOL!!) After I tasted it I completely forgot about the smell. I was definitely surprised by my first bite, I guess I had imagined beforehand what I thought Thai noodles would taste like and I had imagined wrong. It was different, but tasty. (Mine was so much better!) I ordered my noodles medium because I had no idea how hot medium would be. I was happy with the medium because their heat was flavorless but made your lips tingle a bit! I wasn't terribly impressed with what I ordered. I am surprised it is the most popular dish because once I tasted my sisters' I was so over the Drunken Noodles. (Yea, mine was bomb!) I have to say that when I got down towards the bottom of the bowl where all the sauce was and I had a taste of the Spicy Beef Jantaboon I wasn't a huge fan of the overall flavor. I would give the Drunken Noodles a 3. 

The Spicy Beef Jantaboon was delicious! The soy and rice wine sauce and the cilantro gave this dish the perfect taste. On the dinner menu you have the choice of chicken, beef, pork, or tofu on their dishes; after tasting the beef in my sisters dish I will probably choose beef from now on in whatever I order! I give the Spicy Beef a 7! I am actually thinking about the left overs in the fridge for a midnight snack! (Hey! Back up off my Spicy Beef!!)

Last and surely least we ordered the Crazy Noodles Soup! Sounds so fun right? Here is a quick menu description...Rice vermicelli noodles, Thai basil, kaffir lime, lemongrass and fresh vegetables in a creamy coconut milk broth. Must LOVE coconut milk to enjoy this favorite (Thai hot only!!!) 

I was intrigued because of the coconut milk and just had to order it! The soup only came in one size, huge! Again, I tried to imagine what it would taste like; I was banking on a sweet and spicy duo. I was wrong again! (0 points for you!) I did not like the soup at all, it didn't really have a flavor other than hot. My mouth was on fire, but not unbearable. May I mention that the Crazy Noodles Soup was not very soup like? There was hardly any juice at all in the bottom of the bowl. So the soup for me gets a 2, definitely will not be eating this again. (NEVER again!)


 I would like to thank Lulu's for being such an awesome place, we had a great time and our service was amazing! We will definitely be back! Can't wait to try some of your other options!!

Ok, so Amanda has been wanting to try Lulu's Thai Noodle Shop for a while now, and since we were in the city we decided to give them a shot.

Now if we could only find a place to park! As you know, parking in downtown Kansas City is an adventure on its own. (This is why I always drive! We all know you are scared of parallel parking!) We pulled into a small yet very full parking lot right in front of Lulu's only to discover someone's car being towed off the lot! We quickly decided that we should probably find a different place to park. (I feel so bad for those people, but I was so laughing a little on the inside. I mean the signs are very clear!) We drove around the block looking for parking only to end up in the same parking lot we started in, but this time we notice a little sign reserving a spot for Lulu's customers!  

My first thought as we walked into Lulu's was I’m in LOVE! 

I loved the artsy feel to this cozy little noodle shop. It had pops of bright fun colors everywhere! I mean you just gotta love a place that has teal bar stools!

We ordered from the lunch menu which was reasonably priced.

 I ordered the Spicy Beef Jantaboon, and Amanda ordered the Drunken Noodles which our server informed us was one of their most popular dishes. We were also eyeing their Crazy Noodles soup so we asked if we could order a cup with the lunch specials. Apparently this soup cannot be ordered by the cup, only by the pot.  Slightly disappointed, we decided to walk away from the soup and just go with our lunch specials. (A decision I wish we would have stuck to.)

Very shortly after ordering, our food arrives! Everything looked so good, however, an aroma of stinky feet started to take over the place! After quietly scanning the room for the barefoot culprit, I realized the smell was coming from Amanda’s bowl!!! (Not going to lie, I was really hoping the smell was coming from you and not my food!) It was awful! All I could think about was I am so glad I don’t have to eat that!!! LOL!!  The Spicy Beef Jantaboon, on the other hand, smelled and tasted DELICIOUS!!  And to my surprise, was not very spicy. (Maybe because every time you saw a pepper you said "Not eating that".) I loved everything about this dish, but my favorite part was the fresh cilantro it was topped with. Oh how I love cilantro! After savoring several bites of the Spicy Beef Jantaboon I hesitantly sampled Amanda’s Drunken Noodles, and to my surprise, it was not terrible. I mean it wasn’t near as good as mine, but it wasn’t terrible either.  

During our meal we just couldn’t seem to shake the thought of trying the Crazy Noodles Soup, so we decided to just go ahead and order it. The soup came out in a large serving bowl and was piled high with veggies, chicken, and noodles. This looked more like a big bowl of noodles rather than soup. After digging down deep into the pot of noodles we finally found some soup! Amanda scoops a big spoon full into her bowl. (This may make me slightly less adventurous!) I, being the less adventurous one, barely scooped enough out to try. Amanda then confidently takes a big bite of her soup as I quietly await her response before I will give it try. When the look on her face wasn’t a pleasant one I decided that I should take precaution by only slightly licking the outside of my spoon. (I can't imagine what my face looked like! No joke people she only licked her spoon!!! See what I am dealing with!) It was VERY hot and not tasty at all. In fact I thought it kinda tasted like dirt. It reminded me of the dirty taste of a fresh beet. (This girl is such a beet hater!! I guess its pretty obvious who is Sweets and who is Beets!!)

All in all, I was very pleased with Lulu’s. I mean after all, my dish was DELICIOUS and I would definitely order it again. 

I give the Spicy Beef Jantaboon a 7 and the Drunken Noodles a 3 on the taste rating scale. 

As far as the Crazy Noodle soup goes I would have to give it a 1 L. 

 As a restaurant over all I rate Lulu’s at a 6! 

The service was great, the people were friendly, and I loved the ambiance! I would also like to give a special thanks to Zack our server for making our experience at Lulu’s a good one. 

Buddha by Kenji Fusion Review

 FYI craziest two months of our lives!!!
I am excited to announce that Christy now lives in Kansas City!! After her extended visit this summer I guess she decided she just couldn’t get enough of me or maybe it was all the delish food we have tried this summer. (I’m starting to lean more toward the food!! LOL! =P)   We want to apologize for taking so long to write our second post, but hopefully you will understand why! Our last two months have looked a little like this… 16 hours of traveling to Arkansas and back, packing, unpacking, rearranging every room in our house, getting JOBS, getting my niece enrolled in school, and trying to eat at as many new places as possible (without breaking the bank J). I am excited to finally be blogging again! Obviously the move changes the concept of our blog a little, but I believe it is for the best! We now will review all the restaurants together and they will predominately all be in Kansas City! Occasionally we will get to try some good ole Arkansas cuisine to review! I am ecstatic about this change; everyone needs a good change in their lives every now and then!!

Buddha by Kenji Fusion

First thing I want to say to everyone about Buddha is don’t get caught in your sweats and t-shirt at this place! Christy learned this the hard way! (I was so embarrassed!)  We went in around 4pm expecting a really chill atmosphere and we were mistaken. This is a super classy place, our hostess was wearing a black dress and heals, the lighting was amazing, and the ambiance was comparable to a night club. I was very impressed with the art and white leather chairs at all the tables. My first impression was “This is it, we finally found our new sushi place!” Looks can be deceiving! Just so you know a little about me and my sushi tastes… I like a lot of veggies in my rolls aka I don’t like boring sushi, I don’t mind trying all kinds of fish but I don’t want my rolls to taste too fishy, I’m a sauce girl I like to dip my sushi in different things like soy sauce, ginger dressing or anything that looks yummy, I love, love, love seaweed salad, but probably the most important thing to know about me is I’m not in love with sushi. (I just don’t think I can look at you the same way anymore!) I try to love it for my sister, but I have only ever gotten close once at Tokyo House in Arkansas! So, my experience at Buddha was not a pleasant one. We ordered Liz’s California Roll, Shrimp Tempura Roll, and a Rainbow Roll. We always order one safe roll; we went with the Shrimp Tempora this time. All I have to say is BORING! I was expecting at least one veggie with my shrimp in this roll, but no just shrimp! There wasn’t enough sauce in the world to fix this roll. (Amen Sister!)Moving on to the Rainbow Roll, we were trying to be daring by ordering a roll with different kinds of fish. This was just ok, but again not enough on the inside for me and it was a little too fishy for my tastes. It’s almost like it tastes dirty when it’s too fishy.  Last, and my personal favorite of the three, was the Liz’s California Roll. (The flavor handicapped should not be allowed to judge.)  This roll pretty much sums up what I like in sushi lots of sauce on top and lots of veggies, but sadly the taste was not spectacular. I just wasn’t impressed by anything that we ordered. Oh, and did I mention they were out of Seaweed Salad! It was a sad day in Amanda Land! To top it all off our bill ended up being around $30-$40! We paid a lot of money to be disappointed! I do have to say this place is very new, so I will give them a little slack on the mediocre service and being out of Seaweed Salad. Also, looking around at all the food everyone else was ordering made me want to try their Chinese options! My taste rating for Buddha's Sushi would be a 3 brcause I have had worse, but I wouldn't order any of those rolls again. My rating for Buddha as a restaurant would be an 8! The feel of the restaurant was amazing and it is a perfect date night destination! The service could improve but I feel this will get better the longer they are open! Buddha, thanks for bringing a stylish new restaurant to the Northland! (Well said! I agree completely!)

While my sister and I were getting our shop on at Michaels, we had a sudden craving for sushi!! We had crafting and sushi on the brain, so we decided to try out a new Asian restaurant in Zona Rosa shopping center called Buddha.
 The restaurant was divided into 2 sections. The hibachi lounge and the regular dining area. The hibachi lounge looked amazing with huge hibachi bars and a stage set up right in the middle of the lounge! My first impression was definitely WOW! It is the type of place that makes you want to hang out there for hours, especially if there is live music.
As soon as we were seated we scoured the menu for sushi! The first thing I noticed was the price of each roll. In my opinion, the prices were on the higher side of average for sushi. One thing I thought was odd was that most of their sushi was wrapped in soy paper. I had never had sushi wrapped in soy paper before, so I gave it a try and ordered Liz's California Roll. We also ordered a Shrimp Tempura Roll and a Rainbow Roll. We also tried to order a seaweed salad, but they were all out. Boo! (Literally! I almost cried) : (

Now for the taste test!!
I had such high hopes for Buddha, but sadly to say, I was let down. : ( I did not like any of the sushi we ordered! Not even the Shrimp Tempura Roll! In my opinion, Liz's California Roll was the worst of the 3. However, my palletly challenged sister thought it was the best of the 3! (Whatevs! LOL) After trying this very weird Calli roll, I have decided that I do NOT like soy paper AT ALL. The soy paper was flavorless and had the texture of wet soggy cardboard! However, Liz's California Roll was the only roll with more than 1 ingredient in the center of the roll. It was a very sad sushi day indeed! : (
So, as far as sushi goes, I am not a big fan of Buddha at all! (We can definitely agree on that!)

Sorry Buddha, but I give you guys a 

2 on the taste rating scale for sushi. : (

 However, as for the

 restaurant overall I would rate Buddha at an 8. 

I really loved the ambiance of this restaurant.

 It's just one of those places that makes you want to call the girls out for a night on the town!

 

Also, we want to be very clear that we are trying some of these foods for the first time. Our opinions and reviews can be compared to the average person wanting to branch out and try new things. These restaurants may make the best authentic dishes in the whole city, but we can only rate them by what our taste buds say! We are hoping to try multiple restaurants that serve similar dishes so we can really find out if we like these new cultural cuisines.